St Brendan’s recognised for outstanding German education

News article

7th December 2018

t was a day of international celebration for St Brendan’s last week, as we became an official Partner School of the Goethe-Institut London!

The partnership recognises the College’s connection with Germany and the teaching of the language and is part of the initiative “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH). The worldwide network of more than 1,800 schools across the globe is an initiative of the German Federal Foreign Office. The Goethe-Institut London oversees the implementation of the initiative in England and now has a total of five schools registered with the prestigious title.

As part of the official launch, St Brendan’s welcomed a range of Language Teachers from across the city to join them in their celebration and over 150 staff, students and friends of the College gathered for the ceremony. The day was opened with speeches by Dr. Susanne Frane of the German Embassy, Dr. Georgia Herlt of the Goethe-Institut London and Michael Jaffrain, Principal of St Brendan’s Sixth Form College. The speeches were followed by a selection of musical performances by College students and impressive German poetry recitals from A-level German students.

Michael Jaffrain commented on the event, “It’s a huge privilege and honour to become an official PASCH Partner School. As the language provision is tragically being cut across the city due to lack of funding, it is a huge shame to see our young people being unable to access language education. As a College, we are proud of our blossoming Language Centre and we continue to offer more language courses each year to our new students. I look forward to a great partnership with the Goethe-Institut and thank them for their kind words and gifts. I’m excited to see how our Language Centre continues to grow in 2019!”

Special congratulations to Carmen Schembri-Wismayer, German Teacher, for her hard work and dedication! Thank you to the hugely talented Music and German students for their performances which truly impressed our visitors.